A team of scientists in
Russia has blood on its hands: namely, the vital fluid preserved inside
the remains of an ancient horse that died 42,000 years ago, which could
provide the key needed to clone the species back to life.

Samples of liquid blood were taken from heart vessels – it was
preserved in the liquid state for 42,000 years thanks to favorable
burial conditions and permafrost, said Dr. Semyon Grigoryev, head of the Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk.

We can now claim that this is the best preserved Ice Age animal ever found in the world, he added.

In addition to the blood, the remains contained “beautifully
preserved internal organs,” Grigoryev said, adding that the autopsy of
the remains reveal that the Ice Age horse, belonging to the “Lenskaya”
species, died of drowning at just two weeks old.

A lot of mud and silt which the foal gulped during the last seconds
of its life were found inside its gastrointestinal tract, Grigoryev
said.

The discovery may help scientists revive the Ice Age horse species
through cloning, and some researchers already say they are “confident of
success” in that endeavor, adding that the cloning attempts have
already begun and will continue until the end of April.

Plans were unveiled last year to build a cloning center for the
North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk, at the cost of $5.9
billion. The center, according to NEFU rector Evgenia Mikhailova, would
include a “world class” paleo-genetic lab, which would study extinct
animals using living cells, ultimately with a goal of bringing them back
to life.While the foal’s remains were unearthed last year, the discovery of liquid blood is a new find.

The finding comes as a result of two months of intense collaboration
between scientists at NEFU in Yakutsk and the South Korean Sooam Biotech
Research Foundation.source: RT